Sasol, GE pilot new water treatment technology

The anaerobic membrane technology will be developed at a new demonstration plant at Sasol’s research campus in Sasolburg in Free State province, the companies said today without disclosing terms.

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By RANDALL HACKLEYBloomberg

General Electric (GE) and Sasol are collaborating on a
water-technology pilot project that will clean wastewater
from plants producing synthetic fuels and chemicals and supply
biogas as a byproduct for power generation.

The anaerobic membrane technology will be developed at a
new demonstration plant at Sasols research campus in
Sasolburg in Free State province, the companies said today in a
statement without disclosing terms.

The development, and expected commercialization, increases the
efficiencies of Sasols gas-to-liquids operations, said
Ernst Obersholster, group executive for Sasols
international energy division.

The companies said the effort also aims to help limit the
negative impact that South Africas water scarcity is
having on the economy. Sasol, based in Johannesburg, is the
worlds biggest producer of motor fuel from coal.

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I would be interested to know more about the technology refereed to be Jimmy Kumana.

Jimmy Kumana11.11.2013

About 20 years ago, there was a severe drought in South Africa, and the the water level in the Vaal river had fallen to historically low levels. The Sasolburg plant was facing water supply curtailment. They developed a robust water conservation program based on reuse and internal recycle, which would have reduced fresh water intake requirements by as much as 50%. This plan was far more cost effective than the End-of-pipe WWT option. A paper was presented at the 1997 AIChE meeting, detailing this plan. But then the rains came, and the project was shelved. Now it seems that this institutional memory has been completely erased, and they are going back to a sub-optimal solution.